


Retrieval

by dragonwings948



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alien Planet, Animals, Cuddling & Snuggling, Escape, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Friendship, Idiots in Love, Love, Running Away, Survival, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27090313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonwings948/pseuds/dragonwings948
Summary: Narvin and Leela are on a field mission on a jungle planet, but as always, things don't go exactly to plan.
Relationships: Leela & Romana II, Leela (Doctor Who)/Narvin (Doctor Who), Narvin & Romana II
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Retrieval

**Author's Note:**

> I think there's something wrong with me, I just can't stop writing Leela and Narvin??
> 
> Anyway, the style of this one was heavily influenced by Erasure, hence the similar-sounding title, which wouldn't go away once I thought of it! The idea first came to me after rereading the wonderful fic [Meet Me On the Battlefield](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25854940) by bravest_person_in_Wonderland!
> 
> Enjoy, and thank you for reading! ^-^

“She’s going to be fine, Narvin.”

Narvin realised he had been pacing and came to an abrupt halt. “Yes, I know.”

“Then why do you look so nervous?”

Flashes of memory went through his mind. He felt like adrenaline was still left running through his veins. “I suppose I’m still…decompressing.”

Romana crossed her arms and frowned. “What exactly happened on Reutis? Leela told me a few things, but I’m interested to know the whole story.”

Narvin let out a long sigh. Confusing emotions were still battling in his head. He trusted Romana, of course he did, but he wasn’t sure if he trusted anyone, even himself, with the feelings and temptations that had surfaced during his time on that cursed planet.

“You know I’ll have to debrief you anyway. It may help to take your mind off the present.”

She was right about that. He needed a break from all of this soul-searching and questioning. “Fine,” he said, sitting down across from her. “But I will tell you that there’s one part in particular that will be…” He swallowed, already flinching away from the memory. “Rather difficult to tell.”

Romana’s expression became a mix of concern and curiosity.

Narvin licked his lips and began. “It started off like any normal field mission…”

_I immediately knew I didn’t like Reutis. It’s a jungle planet, which I knew before I arrived, of course, but the thought of a jungle and being inside one are two very different things. Every single step put our lives in danger: carnivorous plants, giant bugs, violent monkeys, not to mention the damp, humid weather._

_Leela, as you can imagine, was in her element. In fact, I had a moment of panic when I lost sight of her as soon as we stepped out of the TARDIS. However, she had apparently thought it would be funny to climb up a tree and then jump down in front of me to scare me._

_It wasn’t funny._

_“Narvin,” Leela said with a smile, “where is your sense of adventure?”_

_“This isn’t an adventure,” I reminded her. “This is a serious mission to recover a very important object.”_

_“And you said we need to travel far to obtain this Crystal of Con…Contem…”_

_“Contemplation, and yes. The time relics interfere with the TARDIS navigational circuits. This was the closest we could land.” I checked the temporal distortion scanner I’d brought with me. “We’ll have to walk a couple of miles or so.”_

_Leela’s smile became smug. “So it is an adventure.”_

_I was in no mood for her teasing. One minute on that jungle planet had me hot, tired, and wanting to go home. “If you prefer to think of it that way, fine,” I spat as I stormed on ahead._

_We found the crystal without incident (well, no incidents other than Leela trying to cheer me up and point out interesting things she found in the jungle along the way). It’s funny how such a small thing can have such immensely incredible power. As I held it in the palm of my hand, I could already hear it starting to assert its influence over my mind. I tried to explain to Leela why she had to be the one in charge of it._

_“The crystal is one of the ancient time relics,” I said. “They were scattered all over the universe a long time ago, and we’ve been trying to find and recover them all. However, they’re rather difficult to trace until you’re up close.”_

_“They are…dangerous?” she asked, letting the crystal roll around in her palm._

_“Many of them, yes. This crystal can show you potential futures—all of them, if you listen hard enough. It’s said that if you meditate with this crystal, it can show you the decisions you must make to turn any chosen future into reality.”_

_Leela frowned. “It is dangerous, knowing the future.”_

_“Yes, it is,” I agreed. “You’ll only have it for a short time so you should be fine, but I wouldn’t listen too closely. If I were to carry the crystal, it would be much worse. As a time lord, I’m already sensitive to the future and how timelines can shift. The crystal would have an easy hold on my mind, making the temptation too strong for me to resist. And if I did try to resist, it would make me physically ill—”_

“Narvin, I do know how the Crystal of Contemplation works.”

Narvin blinked, focusing on Romana’s rather bored expression. “Of course. I got a bit carried away.”

“So far it seems the mission went rather well.”

“It did,” Narvin sighed, “until the locals realised we’d taken the crystal.”

_It was all a bit of a rush, but the short version is that we ended up running for our lives. I knew that Leela could run miles ahead of me if she wanted to, but she held back and kept pace with me as I tried to push my way through vines and giant leaves. It took only minutes for my pace to slow._

_“I have told you, you need more exercise, Narvin.”_

_“Leela, now is really not the—!” An arrow thudded into a tree trunk right beside my head. Somehow, I ran faster._

_Despite the fact that I knew Leela wasn’t running in the direct path towards the TARDIS, I followed her. She led us through a swamp (I can still feel the bug bites) and over two hills, putting us far ahead of the tribe chasing after us. Once I couldn’t hear them any longer, I started to slow down, completely out of breath. Leela stayed by my side, but she pumped her arms like she wanted to go faster._

_“We must keep going until we are out of danger!”_

_“I…I can’t…keep going on….like this,” I wheezed. “Just because I have two hearts—”_

_“Narvin!”_

_The next few moments were a blur. Leela tugged on my robes and shoved me to the side. I fell hard on the leafy ground, just narrowly missing a tree root. Regardless, I probably would have lain there catching my breath for a nanospan if I hadn’t heard Leela scream._

_The sound made every inch of my body freeze in terror as a million terrifying scenarios flashed through my mind. I recovered myself immediately and scrambled into a sitting position, ignoring the protests of my sore limbs. The world spun in front of my eyes; my hearts were still beating much too fast. I blinked hard, straining to see what had happened. There, far above me, was Leela, hanging upside down from a tree with some kind of net wrapped around her ankle._

_My imagination filled in the rest. Leela had seen the trap, pushed me away from it, and in doing so had been caught up in it herself._

_“Leela!” I yelled, knowing that she, of all people, didn’t scream for no reason. But either she couldn’t hear me because she was too far up, or she was already too focused._

“Focused?” Romana raised an eyebrow, but her eyes betrayed her apprehension.

Thinking back, Narvin couldn’t help but shake his head in disbelief. “Of course, I know now that the force of the net jerking her upwards dislocated her ankle. She must have been in agony those first few moments, but yes, she was focused, because she got down without any help at all.”

_I, of course, was completely useless. There was nothing I could do other than watch. I panicked, thinking of how the locals would catch up with us, wondering how I was going to get Leela down._

_Before I knew it, she had swung herself to the trunk of the tree and grabbed on. She used her knife to cut her ankle free and then scaled down the tree trunk. By her slow, methodical climb down, I could see that something was wrong. She was only using her left foot, but she still made it down on her own. I was standing there waiting at the foot of the tree, simply gawking at her. A mixture of amazement and concern was enough to leave me without words. I reached out to help her, but she ignored my hands and simply wrapped her right arm around my back—to use me as a crutch, I realised._

_“We must go.”_

_I didn’t know what to say. Especially looking back and knowing what happened, that was probably one of the greatest feats I’ve ever seen anyone perform single-handedly. At the time, however, I was still dazed and slightly out of breath. Everything had happened so quickly._

_“What?” was the only word I could manage._

_Leela looked at me like I was the epitome of stupid, her face so close that I could nearly see the fire of determination alight in her eyes. “If we do not go now, we will be captured. I cannot walk; you must help me.”_

_“Your foot,” I said, my mouth catching up with what my mind had already noticed. Leela tried to wave away my concern, but I insisted that she lean against the tree while I took a look. It wasn’t her foot, as you know, but her ankle. It was severely swollen and there was a bulge where one shouldn’t be. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. “Is it broken?”_

_“I do not think so. I did not hear or feel a break.”_

_“Dislocated, then?” As I studied it, I knew it had to be excruciatingly painful. I stood up and saw that Leela was flushed, the muscles in her jaw tense. “Are you all right?”_

Romana laughed, hiding her grin with her hand. “Leela can’t walk, and you ask her if she’s all right? I can only imagine how well that went.”

“If your imagination includes Leela calling me an imbecile—a word _you_ taught her, I believe—and then telling me that _of course_ she wasn’t all right, then yes. It went rather well.”

“So what did you do?” There was still a small smile on her face as she leaned back as if waiting to hear more. She was _enjoying_ this, Narvin realised. _She_ hadn’t had to live through the horror of it. Leela was going to be fine now, so this was all just one ludicrous tale she could laugh at.

Romana continued, “Leela’s ankle is hurt, you’re on the run… _you_ obviously couldn’t carry her, and being her crutch wouldn’t get you very far either.”

Narvin frowned at her implication. “As a matter of fact, I _did_ carry her just fine for a time.” And as he thought of it, his hands tingled like her skin had been on fire and he still remembered what it felt like to be burned. “You were right; we quickly realised that her hobbling along while leaning on me was too slow. She told me to pick her up and I carried her for a ways.”

Romana’s lips twitched into a smirk. “Have you been taking Leela’s advice to exercise after all?”

“No, but I’m very seriously considering it now.” He still felt like he had been pummelled. “I think it was the adrenaline. Even then, we didn’t get very far.”

_“This is not fast enough either, Narvin.” Leela glanced behind me and I didn’t dare to think of what she could see._

_“We need to find somewhere to hide,” I agreed. The shouts and battle cries behind us were enough to tell me how fine we were cutting it. With the roundabout route we’d taken, we were still a mile or so from the TARDIS._

_I expected Leela to protest—“hiding is not the Sevateem way” and all of that—but she said nothing. When I looked down at her, her eyes were squeezed shut and she was biting her lip. She was in more pain than she wanted me to know. I wanted to ask if there was anything I could do to help, but I also didn’t want to let her know I’d seen her unguarded moment. I decided that the best thing I could do was turn my mind to finding a hiding spot._

_We were coming up on another rocky hill, so it occurred to me that there might be a cave of some sort nearby. I ventured away from the path to the TARDIS. My arms were beginning to shake from holding Leela’s weight and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer._

“Still sore, Narvin?”

He realised he’d been rubbing absently at his arms. He doubted he’d be able to lift even a pencil at the moment.

He cleared his throat. “You can look pleased,” he muttered. “You weren’t there.”

Romana frowned. “And when are you going to tell me what happened to your sleeve?”

Ah. He’d been trying to hide that, but he’d forgotten in the midst of his tale. He covered his left arm with his right, looking up and meeting Romana’s eyes.

“That comes in just about now, actually.” He paused, getting ahead of himself as the painful thoughts overwhelmed him.

“Narvin, are you all right?”

He swallowed hard and chuckled nervously, unsure if he’d be able to get through the next part. “Yes, of course. Where was I? Ah, yes, we were just finding the cave.”

_It was hidden by lots of hanging vines and undergrowth, so Leela agreed with me that it was a good place to lie low for a while. I was still worried about her, though. She got more quiet, only speaking briefly when she had something to say. I wondered if she was worried that I’d hear the pain in her voice. But once we were inside the cave and I sat Leela down, she told me what I had to do._

_“Narvin.” Her voice was soft, and that alerted me more than anything. She looked into my eyes with grave seriousness. “You will need to reset the bone.”_

_It took me a moment to process what she was asking—no, telling me to do. I knew she was saying it because she was in too much pain and it felt like a punch in my gut. But the thought of doing something that could so easily hurt her was out of the question._

_“Leela, you know I can’t do that. We’ll get back to the TARDIS—”_

_“It will be many hours before it is safe for us to go back to the TARDIS. I did this for someone once, in my tribe. I will tell you how it is done.”_

_“That was a lifetime ago! You can’t expect me to…” I couldn’t find the right words to explain my horror at the thought. I lowered my voice and spoke to her earnestly, trying again. “Leela, if I hurt you, if I do something wrong…”_

_She huffed a heartless laugh. “You could not cause me any more pain than I am already in.” She placed her hand over mine, comforting me like I was the one in pain. “I would not ask you if I did not think you could do it.”_

_I looked into her eyes. Not only could I see her resolve and her belief in me, but the pain, too. She was right; it would be a long time before the path was cleared to the TARDIS. I didn’t want to risk causing her pain, but I didn’t want to sit there while she was in agony, either._

_I finally agreed. Leela told me exactly what I needed to do, confirming when I had my hands in the right place and explaining how much force I’d need to use. The whole time, I was shaking. In fact, I don’t mind telling you that I was scared out of my wits. Realising how much damage I could do if I pushed too hard, not knowing if this would really help her in the end…_

_The last thing she told me she needed was a torn piece of fabric from my robe._

_“Your clothes are made from weak material and will rip easily,” she said._

_I did as she asked without question, trusting that she knew best. I ripped off my sleeve up to my forearm and gave the cloth to her. She tore it up a bit more and wadded it into a size she could fit in her fist. Then she said it was time._

_I delicately placed my hands over her ankle. I saw her move out of the corner of my eye and looked up as she bit down on the lump of fabric. It struck me like a lightning bolt that she knew exactly how painful it would be._

_My hands fell away. “I can’t do it, Leela.” My hearts thundered even louder than they had earlier when I’d been running. “I can’t.”_

_She glared at me, not saying a word. She was being strong for me, I realised. Now I had to be strong for her._

Romana’s smile was gone. There was a deep crease between her eyebrows as she met Narvin’s gaze. “I’m sorry, Narvin.”

He swallowed and once again looked down at his torn sleeve. That moment would be burned forever into his brain: feeling Leela’s bones shift beneath his hands, hearing her muffled cry, trying not to break down—and the worst part of all, looking up to see tears running down her cheeks. Narvin knew they had been involuntary from the pain, but the sight had been so terrible that it was all he’d been able to do not to completely fall apart.

“Have you ever seen Leela cry?” he asked, lowering his voice. He knew that Leela was on the other side of the wall and there was no possible way she could hear, but it felt safer anyway.

“In all the time I’ve known her…no.” Romana paused. “Have you?”

“For all intents and purposes, no.” She’d probably murder him if he ever told anyone about what he’d seen, even if she’d had no control over it.

Romana nodded. Narvin had no doubt she understood everything.

“You did it, though; you set the bones back in place. I must say I’m impressed.”

“So am I. So was Leela, I think, but at the moment she was more relieved than anything.”

Romana hummed thoughtfully. “But you still had to wait for the path to your TARDIS to clear.”

“Yes.” Narvin chuckled. “You know, if I would have been on that mission alone, I would have been captured and then probably killed. Even if I would have made it to the cave, I wouldn’t have known what to do from there. But Leela told me how to build a fire, how to construct a brace for her ankle. She determined which fruits were safe to eat. In the middle of that terrible planet, on the run from some rather bloodthirsty locals, it was almost…well, I wouldn’t say _normal,_ but it was rather pleasant. We decided that in the morning I’d go out and scout around to see if the locals were still after us. Leela was fairly sure that after searching all night they’d take their hunt elsewhere.”

Romana’s amused smile returned. “Are you telling me that the Coordinator of the CIA slept in a cave?”

“Well,” Narvin sighed, “needs must.”

_The weather, so hot and humid during the day, turned freezing cold at night. We sat close to the fire I’d miraculously built with no problems (due entirely to Leela’s instruction, I’m sure) and I was so concerned for Leela’s condition that I couldn’t even find it in me to be embarrassed as we sat hip to hip. I knew that my nonexistent body heat wouldn’t do much to help her, but if I’m being honest, it was probably more of a comfort to me to know she was safe and warm._

_After adding some more fuel to the fire, I came and sat back by Leela’s side. She didn’t seem to mind me sitting so close, and I wished that I could be warmer for her sake._

_“Thank you, Narvin,” she said softly._

_I knew she meant for everything, not just for maintaining the fire. “I didn’t do very much,” I replied, “and I wouldn’t have known how to do any of it without you.” I looked over at her. Her legs were stretched out, the easiest resting position for her ankle. “How are you feeling?”_

_“I will manage.”_

_I wanted to point out that wasn’t what I’d asked, but I was too exhausted to fight her and I knew I wouldn’t win even if I tried._

_“I will take first watch tonight,” Leela continued._

_“Leela, you can’t be serious!”_

_She turned her head to fix me with that indignant look of hers. “Do you think I am weak because of what has happened?”_

_“Of course not. I don’t ever think you’re weak.” In fact, I thought that she was one of the strongest people I’d ever known._

_That seemed to surprise her. Her expression went slack._

_“Especially not now,” I continued. “You’ve sustained a severely painful injury and haven’t said a single word about it. Do you know how much I’d be complaining if I was in your place?”_

_Leela grinned and laughed. “Yes, I do.”_

_Laughter. That was good. Somehow, that one sound seemed to finally relax my body after the many stressors of the day. The next thing I knew, my eyes were closed and I was drifting off._

_When I woke up, the fire was only embers. It was still dark outside. I glanced at Leela to see if she was cold and saw her cradling the Crystal of Contemplation in her hands, staring at it intently._

Narvin paused, expecting some kind of criticism from Romana, but she didn’t seem surprised or upset. He decided to make it easier by stating it himself: “You probably think I’m an idiot for letting her have it, but what choice did I have? With Leela’s strong will, I didn’t think it would do any harm.”

“It doesn’t seem like it _did_ do any harm,” Romana said.

Narvin still couldn’t believe she was acting so remarkably calm about this. “Did she already tell you?”

Romana nearly smiled. “I’m not going to reprimand you, Narvin. As you said, you didn’t have any other choice.”

She’d avoided his question. Had Leela told Romana what she’d seen?

“Well, go on,” Romana said before he could ask anything else. “Was Leela using the crystal?”

Narvin sighed. “Yes, she was. She said that in the quiet of the night she’d heard it talking to her, that it was warm in her hands…”

_“But Leela,” I protested, “you can’t listen to it. I told you how dangerous it is.”_

_Leela frowned at me. “I am not as weak-willed as you think I am, Narvin. It is telling me things I already know. I will not look into the future; I know that is something I must decide for myself.”_

_I searched her face for a lie, but of course, she’s not a time lord. She doesn’t hide things like we do. I decided she was telling the truth, but I still encouraged her to put it away. “Get some sleep,” I told her. “I’ll take watch this time.”_

_She nodded and leaned back against the wall. A shudder passed through her body. I remembered that the fire was nearly dead and got up to add some more wood. By the time I sat back down, Leela was fast asleep. It’s a talent she has, I think, to fall asleep whenever and wherever she chooses. A talent I wish I had._

_Anyway, the night was rather quiet. Occasionally I’d hear some rustling leaves outside the cave and put my hand on my staser, but most of it turned out to be nothing. There wasn’t much to do, so I sat beside Leela and…I simply thought. But I won’t bore you with that. Time passed, and eventually, when everything was still and silent, I heard it._

_It didn’t speak actual words into my mind, only pictures so clear that they could be confused for my own thoughts. That, of course, is what makes the crystal so dangerous to time lords. I didn’t even realise the thoughts were from the Crystal of Contemplation until it was too late, and by then I didn’t care. I won’t go into details, but I could see the paths before me and the one I wanted to take required no hesitation. It began to unfold before me. It was incredible, like our normal time lord senses but enhanced tenfold._

_I never thought I’d ever say I was grateful for danger, but this once, I was. Before I got in too deep, I heard something shuffling inside the cave. It broke me out of the trance enough to pull myself together and shift away from Leela, realising I was leaning against where she’d pocketed the crystal. I shook my head, coming to my senses just as something stalked towards us from the cave opening._

_Luckily, it wasn’t one of our pursuers. Remember those monkeys I told you about? One of them was walking slowly and curiously towards the fire. The monkeys there aren’t skittish creatures; the intruder didn’t care that Leela and I were there._

_I leapt to my feet and pulled out my staser. I heard a quick intake of breath as Leela woke up._

_“Narvin,” she hissed. “Do not use your staser; it will be too loud.”_

_She was right, and I knew it immediately. If our enemies were anywhere close, they’d hear it. Leela pushed something into my other hand: her knife._

_My blood ran cold._

_I’ve killed people with my staser before and had no qualms about it. I’m much different now, of course, but even back then, when I didn’t value any other life but my own, I don’t think I could have looked something in the eye and watched as the life drained out of them. A staser killing is quick and distant; I could have even just stunned the monkey if I’d really wanted to. But stabbing it in the heart, watching its blood pool on the ground? I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even imagine doing it._

_The monkey was getting closer. It still had its gaze trained on the fire, but it glanced at me from time to time. I knew if it came close enough, it wouldn’t hesitate to attack us. Leela could still defend herself, I had no doubt, but I couldn’t take that chance._

_So, I placed my staser back in its holster. I gently lowered Leela’s knife to the ground and pushed it towards her in case she’d need it. She harshly whispered my name but I ignored her. I mustered up all the courage I had in me and imagined myself as the predator rather than this fearsome creature in front of me. I straightened up to my full height and looked the monkey straight in the eye. It met my gaze and its face contorted in anger at my audacity. All the while I was inching towards the fire. Just as the monkey got worked up, I grabbed one of the sticks I’d just put on the fire and rushed at it, waving the fire in front of me._

_The monkey made a sound like a terrified grunt and hightailed it out of the cave. I breathed a sigh of relief, sweat coating my forehead despite the cool weather. I put the flaming stick back. My whole body was trembling._

_“Why did you not kill it?” Leela asked as I sat back down beside her. She sheathed her knife and then looked up at me._

_“I couldn’t.”_

_“You were ready to shoot it with your staser.”_

_I swallowed. “It’s…different.”_

_“Ah. You can perform the cowardly way of killing but not the personal way.”_

_I shuddered, knowing that Leela had killed “the personal way” many times. “I’m not sure how much I relish the thought of killing anything anymore.” I huffed. “I suppose it’s just more of my cowardice.”_

_Leela frowned, her gaze far away as she tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. “It is not always cowardly to not want to kill. The Doctor taught me that.” A small smile twitched at her lips. “You reminded me of him just now, in the way you used your cleverness to scare the beast off.”_

_I could hardly believe that Leela had just called me clever and compared me to someone she thought so highly of. So of course, I rolled my eyes like it meant nothing. “Wonderful, being compared to one of our people’s most infamous renegades.”_

_Leela chuckled. “It was meant to be a com-pli-ment,” she said, hesitantly uttering the final word. She curled into my side; maybe I was warmer than I’d thought. “I am going back to sleep; I trust you will be able to scare off anything else that comes.”_

_The fact that Leela trusted me so much wasn’t lost on me. In fact, it made me feel quite warm for the rest of the night._

Narvin cleared his throat, realising he’d gotten a bit carried away with his emotions, just like he’d told himself he wouldn’t. “And that’s about it,” he continued quickly. “The coast was clear in the morning, so we were able to slowly walk back to the TARDIS with me helping Leela the whole way. We arrived there without any more problems, and you know the rest.”

Romana nodded thoughtfully. “Well, it seems like you had quite the adventure.”

Narvin laughed. “Yes, it did turn out to be one, didn’t it? Leela was right all along. I should have known.”

As if summoned by her name, the door to the medical ward opened and Leela walked out. The sight relieved Narvin so much that he shot to his feet and smiled. “Leela!”

She grinned back at him. “I told you I would be fine, Narvin.”

“It’s good to see you on your feet, Leela,” Romana said as she stood. “Narvin was just telling me about the mission.”

“About the _adventure,”_ Narvin corrected.

Something inside him lit up when Leela’s grin widened. “So there _is_ a sense of adventure in you, Narvin.”

He laughed softly. “As long as it doesn’t involve you getting hurt again, I’d gladly go on another adventure with you, Leela.” Had that been too much? He wasn’t sure anymore. Now that he could finally relax, his mind started to feel fuzzy and his body seemed like dead weight. “But now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go catch up on some rest. Leela,” he said with a nod. He turned to Romana. “Madame President.”

And with that he walked away, telling himself that he’d finish sorting out his emotions later once he’d had a good rest.

* * *

Romana watched Narvin’s retreating form. By his slumped shoulders and measured gait, she could see just how tired he was.

“Will you ever tell him what the crystal showed you?” she asked Leela.

“No. That is a choice he must make himself. I will not force it upon him.”

When Leela had told her, it had seemed like an impossible thing. But seeing the depth of emotion and concern Narvin had conveyed during his tale, she now wondered… “And what if he never makes that choice?” She looked over at Leela but she still had her eyes on Narvin.

“Then I will live with it, and so will he.” She met Romana’s eyes. “Do not worry for me, Romana, and do not interfere. There is more at work than your Web of Time and mystical crystals. If it is to be, then it will happen.”

Romana frowned, unsatisfied. Leela could believe what she wanted to, but maybe Romana could give Narvin a little nudge…

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t even be necessary. Narvin may have hidden what the crystal had shown him, but Romana had easily guessed by the look on his face. It was a look she’d seen on him several times.

A look that he reserved only for Leela.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: please do not try to reset dislocated bones on your own! 😅


End file.
